December 31, 2012

In the past year, I've had less to say on the blog than usual, so it seems fitting that a retrospective should be based on photos rather than solely on words.

I decided to choose one photo from each month. They aren't necessarily meant to sum up the year, but I wanted to pick images that I hadn't posted before that caught my eye while I was scrolling through.

The year was marked by unseasonably warm weather, which explains what I was doing at the Kansas City Zoo in January with nephew, niece and sister.

In February I spoke at the IABC Business Communicators Summit. I wore my pixel skull socks for luck.

In March, I chose not to cook Trillian for dinner despite her apparent willingness to sacrifice herself.

Did a little antiquing in Weston, Missouri after Applefest in October.

Got in one last run in November: a two-mile wilderness run. It was cold and my asthma acted up, but I still enjoyed hanging out with friends and getting some exercise.

December was all about cooking and baking. I hosted a cookie party, got together with my sister and niece for a day of candy making, and made these sugar cookies on my own time to try out the rocket cookie cutter that one of my co-workers made with the company's 3D printer. Keith will recognize the Dalek from the cookie cutters I got from him.

I'm looking forward to an equally active and fun 2013 and wishing you the same!

December 19, 2012

This morning was a triumph of errand running. I'd had my Honda Insight at the car shop for a couple of days getting the main hybrid battery pack replaced at enormous expense. I made it to the rental car place right as they opened at 7:30 a.m., dropped off their car, got a ride to the dealer, picked up my car, stopped for coffee and a quick breakfast, and made it to my eye doctor appointment by 9.

I had a 10 o'clock meeting at work and I got to my parking garage a few minutes before that. It was pretty full, so I took an uncharacteristic parking spot and hurried in.

Later, a friend called to ask if I wanted to go to lunch. I went to my car a little before noon and immediately opened the hatch to grab a little gift for her. I saw that one of the gift packs I had was unwrapped and thought that was very odd. Surely the car shop guys hadn't opened one?

I didn't get clued in until I opened the driver side door and found one of my plastic console panels lying on the seat. I'd been hearing pieces of the broken glass from the passenger window falling, but it took several long moments for me to put it all together in my head. Someone had broken into my car, taken out my stereo, stolen my nice radar detector from the glove box and generally made a big old mess.

After calling to cancel lunch, I went back to my desk and filed a police report over the phone. It turned out that my car was one of many that had been broken into, so eventually I talked to the police in person, but they wouldn't have come out for just one break-in.

Then I called my insurance company and got that ball rolling. I still haven't heard back with a claim number, but I went ahead and got Safelite Auto Glass to order a new window for me and scheduled an appointment to have it installed tomorrow afternoon.

Big props to Safelite, by the way. They invited me to drive to one of their locations so they could vacuum up the glass and seal the window hole while I waited for the installation. I also appreciated that their appointment confirmation e-mail for the mobile service includes the name and photo of the tech that will be coming to do the work.

I started out angry and upset at first, so I blew off steam via my usual social media accounts until I felt better.

I went back out to my car and noted that my garage door openers were still there (whew!); he hadn't found my GPS; the console panel had actually been removed with a screwdriver, so the damage to the car was limited to the window; and for some reason the guy had torn off a couple of the paper towels I carry in the car for my animal rescue volunteering. I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that he'd spilled a bottle of water I'd had in the car.

Also not stolen:

My glasses, which I'd left in the car after my eye doctor appointment

A CD of The Yes Album (although now that I've looked on Amazon and seen that it's only worth 50¢, I guess I can see why)

The rest of my Christmas gift packs (they're all pretty girly and I think he only opened the one to get some of the candy)

The book I was reading (you can see it in the photo)

So that's good.

I've already discovered that the most annoying thing about not having a car stereo is that it means I also don't have a clock in my car. I'm dealing with the lack of music by singing every Christmas song I can think of, which also has the effect of cheering me up somewhat.

It's all a collossal annoyance, but minor in the grand scheme of things. As I noted in my "acceptance phase" post on Facebook, I guess crack money has to come from somewhere.

December 14, 2012

Well, the freakishly shy cat who hid for a solid week after she got to our house has been blossoming since we moved her up to the recording studio. Now Tinkerbell openly hangs out on the loveseat, plays vigorously with the Turbo Scratcher I got for her, races around all evening playing with toys, and will attack the feather wand toy until she's worn out.

My husband took the photo above and said she was like that for an extended period of time, so he had no problem getting out his camera for a shot. I assume he followed up with the belly woozling that she was obviously asking for.

She's still a little wary of me because I'm the evil woman who used to coax her in, cuddle her for extended periods of time and then betray her trust by poking a pointy antibiotic pill segment down her throat, over and over and over.

She's been done with her pills for more than a week, so I think she's starting to forget about all that.

Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that someone will adopt her while she's still at our house so she doesn't have to go back on display in a pet store. She really doesn't have the temperament for that.

If you're interested in her, click her name in the first paragraph and fill out an application!

December 06, 2012

Christmas Eve is less than three weeks away, but I already have a solid menu plan in place for dinner despite the fact that I haven't even bothered to put up the tree yet (that's planned for this weekend).

Last year I went the non-traditional route and made enchiladas and Mexican rice. This year I asked my husband what he thought we should have and he hardly hesitated at all before he said, "Why don't you make that good fried chicken?"

At first I wasn't convinced, but then I started thinking about the whole meal and it actually sounded like it would be fun. I'll make a variety of dipping sauces for the chicken strips, roast some potatoes, make biscuits and coleslaw, and we can have pineapple upside down cake for dessert.

It's not going to be healthy, but it should be delicious. I even purchased a fryer so I wouldn't have to get one of my pans all sticky with oil.

Christmas Eve is generally a pretty small affair at my house, but as with Thanksgiving, I'm throwing it open to anyone in my area who doesn't have plans.

After that, we can all start working on those New Year's resolutions to eat more vegetables and get some walks in.

December 04, 2012

I can't put my finger on why I've been so neglectful of the poor old blog lately. I'm still out there doing interesting things, but the will to write about them is sorely lacking.

Just to keep this from being a ghost ship, here are some photos I've taken over the past couple of months.

This is Tinkerbell, my foster kitty. I always swore I'd never foster, but I must have had a weak moment. Tinkerbell is the shyest non-feral cat I've ever met. She's really a sweetheart, but so skittish that she vanished for an entire week after she got to our house. We just moved her from the basement to the studio/office so she'd get more time to interact with us. I hope she finds a family that can be patient with her super-slow warmup process.

Speaking of animals, the bromance between Toby and Dr. Jones is still in full swing. The other night while we were watching TV, Jones had settled on the chair in the TV room and Toby was pacing back and forth trying to figure out where to settle. Finally he just jumped on the chair and spooned the cat, who was perfectly happy to let his buddy snuggle with him.

Ooh, pretty!

Ooh, pretty! Part II.

At Thanksgiving I made a lot of my own recipes and took photos of them so they're be more pinnable. Isn't Pomegranate Salsa lovely? I still have a lot of photoless recipes. Getting the rest of the photos may end up being a project for me between Christmas and New Year's Day while I'm off work. After all, we have to eat!

Finally, since today is National Cookie Day, here's a crazy video that my company did for our client Quiznos. It appeals to the hair band-loving teen who still lives in a dark corner of my brain: